Removing Creative Commons License

Update: the site has been taken down. I like to think it was a result of my post and the other people they were scraping standing up for themselves.

Unfortunately, the site yourcreditlive . com (I’m not giving them the benefit of a linkback) has been scraping my content and refuses to take it down because it’s CC licensed. Even had the cahones to list me as a “contributor” (but made sure to include the licensing link).

Therefore, I’m removing the licensing so that I can legally get bottom-feeders to stop using my content. I changed the footer text to read:

This content may only be reproduced by legitimate bloggers. I reserve all rights to decide who is a legitimate blogger. Legitimate bloggers may include pf bloggers, mom bloggers, personal bloggers, etc. You don’t have to contact me for permission, but I reserve the right to report all scraper sites to Google and possibly serve them a DMCA notice.

I’m not judging legitimate bloggers by status or post frequency or anything. Just by whether or not you’re really a blogger or you’re a spammer/scraper/scammer pretending to be a blogger.

I licensed it in the first place because I don’t mind legitimate blogs using excerpts. I don’t even mind them using large excerpts. But I do mind scrapers.

Scrapers make their money when people search for keywords and end up at your scraped post. They probably have Google ads so they can make some money from it. Also, trackbacks they leave on your site may assist them in building page rank and seeming more respectable.

If you believe a site is stealing your content, there are several things you can do.

First, you can report them to Google if they have Google ads. Click the “ads by Google” section and use the reporting option near the bottom of the page the page. Link to what they’re reproducing and the original material on your site. Explain that they’re trying to make Adsense money off of stolen material. Remind them that people visiting the site may click the ads simply as a means of escape once they realize that this site offers no valuable content.

Second, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act should protect your material. You can notify the hosting company about violations. Here’s a sample notice you can use:

Sender Information:
<< Your name >>
<< Your blog name>>
<< Your email address >>

Recipient Information:
<<Name and address of hosting/registrar legal dept>>

Sent via: Fax to <<Fax Number>>
DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringement
Re: [<<URL of blog making the infrigement>>]

Dear <<Name or hosting company>>

I, <<Your Name>>, owner of <<Your Blog>>, certify under penalty of perjury, that I am an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner of certain intellectual property rights.

I have a good faith belief that the items or materials listed below are not authorized by law for use by the above named domain name owner or their agents and therefore infringes the copyright owner’s rights. I hereby demand that you act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material or items claimed to be infringing.

My contact information is as follows:

<<Your contact info, name, address, phone, etc.>>

Allegedly Infringing items or materials:

<<links to your site’s articles and their site’s copies>>

The DMCA may not protect what you’ve got a creative commons license on, unfortunately.

So there you have it. I’m a bit annoyed. If people have the brains to scrape, they have the brains to write a legitimate blog. But they’re choosing to be the bottom-feeders of the blogosphere. Oh well. I hope you don’t have to deal much with scrapers, but they’re an unfortunate fact of life. If you run into particularly nasty one (“contributer” are you kidding me?”) then you may have cause to use this. Though they refused to take it down before I removed the licensing, they took it down after I changed it and wrote back “take it down or else.”

Print Friendly